ZyXEL Communications NWA-3163 & NWA-3166 User Manual

 Chapter 1 Introduction

NWA-3160 Series User’s Guide

provides multiple virtual APs, each forming its own BSS and using its own 
individual SSID profile.

You can configure up to sixteen SSID profiles, and have up to eight active at any 
one time.

You can assign different wireless and security settings to each SSID profile. This 
allows you to compartmentalize groups of users, set varying access privileges, 
and prioritize network traffic to and from certain BSSs.

To the wireless clients in the network, each SSID appears to be a different access 
point. As in any wireless network, clients can associate only with the SSIDs for 
which they have the correct security settings.

For example, you might want to set up a wireless network in your office where 
Internet telephony (VoIP) users have priority. You also want a regular wireless 
network for standard users, as well as a ‘guest’ wireless network for visitors. In 
the following figure, VoIP_SSID users have QoS priority, SSID03 is the wireless 
network for standard users, and Guest_SSID is the wireless network for guest 
users. In this example, the guest user is forbidden access to the wired Land Area 
Network (LAN) behind the AP and can access only the Internet.

Figure 8   Multiple BSSs